Maenaddwyn

The Morris’s of Anglesey

The name of the Morris’s of Anglesey is well-known in the history and literature of Wales. The brothers were called Lewis, Richard, William and John. Lewis (1701-1765) was born in Tyddyn Melys, but Richard (1703-1779), William (1705-1763) and John (1706-1740) were born in the Fferam.

Lewis composed poetry and prose, and he established his own printing press. Richard went to London, where he edited the Bible and published a Prayer Book, and he was the founder of the society of the Cymmrodorion of London. William worked as an officer in the custom-house of Holyhead, and he researched and wrote about botany. John went to sea and became a naval officer, however, he passed away on board a war vessel. He was only 34 years old.

The Morris’s sponsored the great poet Goronwy Owen of Rhosfawr and the brothers left a corpus of letters which give a valuable insight into the social life of the 18th century.

William Jones

William Jones (1675-1749), the mathematician, was born in Merddyn, near Tyddyn Melys. He attended Llanfechell School before going to London, where he was an accountant to a tradesperson, and later, a Mathematics teacher. His work is world-famous, having published his New Compendium of the Whole Art of Navigation (1702) and, more famously, for using the sign to mean ‘periphery’ for the first time in order to denote the ratio of a circle’s diameter. Indeed, William came to be so well-known that he came to the attention of people such as Edmund Halley and Sir Isaac Newton. Also, he became a member of the Royal Society as an F.R.S. and later its vice-president.

World War II Tragedy

On the 21st July 1941, a Defiant Mk1 crashed a couple of hundred metres from a farmhouse known as the Fferam. The aircraft belonged to the 456 Squadron of the Royal Australian Airforce, who were one of the first to use the recently constructed RAF Valley. The pilot, Sgt. A. F. Brooks, was killed in the accident and was buried in Holyhead. A number of evacuees who were staying in Fferam had watched the Defiant as it circled at low level. On its last pass, Sgt. Brooks was seen to be waving his handkerchief as he passed a few feet over the farmhouse before crashing into the field. The plane burst into flames and some local farmers tried to rescue Sgt. Brooks but the heat and exploding ammunition made it impossible.

The Lake of the Eight Oxen

Many years ago, so they say, the farm-hand of Nant Uchaf was ploughing Cefn Du marsh, part of Erddreiniog marsh, with a wooden plough and eight oxen. It was extremely difficult to pull the plough through the marsh, and the farm-hand started cursing and beating the oxen with a stick. That spurred the animals to run into the lake and by doing so, drag the plough and the farm-hand with them. That was the last time anyone saw the farm-hand or the eight oxen.